Ana Rafael Cruz of Lowell, Massachusetts, says she s living a nightmare.
The 25-year-old DACA recipient was brought to the U.S. from Mexico with her twin sister Maria by their mother when they were just 6 years old. Download our mobile app for iOS or Android to get alerts for local breaking news and weather. It s horrible that I have to pay for something that I don t even remember doing, said Cruz.
Cruz has been married to a U.S. citizen for years, and earlier this month, she traveled to Juarez, Mexico, for a visa interview to try to gain legal permanent residency on the advice of her attorney.
Ana Rafael Cruz crossed the Mexican border into the United States undocumented with her mother and twin sister at 6 years old.
Rafael Cruz, now 25, is a beneficiary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, which granted her the ability to live and work in Massachusetts without facing deportation.
She worked two jobs to put herself through UMass Lowell. Since she was first eligible, Rafael Cruz has held the proper permits to stay in the country.
But, a recent trip to Mexico for an immigration visa interview a next step in securing permanent residency has seemingly upended the life she built for herself in the United States, WCVB reports.
The family of a 25-year-old woman who lives in Massachusetts is working to get her back into the United States.Ana Rafael Cruz crossed the Mexican border with her mother and twin sister, Maria Rafael, when the girls were 6 years old.The sisters are both Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients and have lived in Lowell since they were 7 years old.On May 13, Cruz traveled to Juarez, Mexico for a visa interview that would have gotten her one step closer to completing her permanent residency in the U.S.But Rafael says Cruz was told that she was not eligible because she entered the United States without documents. Even though she was just a young child at the time she crossed the border, Cruz has received a 10-year ban before she can reenter the U.S. She left with the reassurance of her attorney that everything was going to be fine and that her case was simple and the results would be positive, Rafael said. We are all devastated. Cruz has been working two jobs to put hersel